Heater



Jan. 9, 1940.

W. W. OWENS HEATER Filed June so; 1957 5 N I l I I I 1 I v 1 2 w x w Fl L n J 3 m if \[iIF 0 l 2 a a 0 m z 7 7 \e 0 g 2 \WWVJA Gum/MM;

WWO wens, mzawrum Patented Jan. 9, 1940 Walter W. Owens, Glendale, cane, assignor to Owens Smokeless Orchard Heater, Incorporated, Hollywood, Calif., a corporation of California Application June 30, 1937, Serial No. 151,265

6 Claims.

This invention relates to heaters and pertains more particularly to that type used in orchards for dispelling frost or sudden cold, which latter has proven extremely detrimental to the proper growing of plants and fruit bearing trees.

Heretofore, as is well known in the art of plant husbandry, it has been customary to employ burners known as smudge pots. As presently constructed these smudge pots are provided with restricted draft producing passages so that the customary fuel, such as crude oil, waste crank case oil, old rubber, brickettes, etc, will smolder, thus creating a pall of heavy smoke with a minimum amount of heatin order to counteract the detrimental effect of frost or cold upon plants or fruit bearing trees. The use of these so called smudge pots has to some extent been efiective in dissipating frost. However, such heaters have resulted in incalculable damage to surrounding property and more particularly to buildings and their contents, by depositing heavy coatings of soot or other foreign substances thereon.

The primary important object of this invention is to eliminate the foregoing objectionable features of the present type of burner by providing a deviceof the above character which has a greater heat producing capacity without the production of smoke, thus resulting in a clean andpositive protection to the plants or trees by eliminating .soot or the like and increasing the temperature of the surrounding atmosphereduring sudden drops in temperature due to frost or cold.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a heater of the above character which is so constructed that a director positive draft may be initially produced for starting the burning of the fuel and which may then be converted into an indirect draft, thus resulting in a slow, economical consumption of the fuel and deflection of the resultant heat over a considerable area surrounding the heater.

A further important object of this invention is to provide a heater of the above character wherein incoming air to be heated is drawn into the fire pot from over the surrounding heater supporting surfaceand then deflected downwardly and outwardly from said heater in a substantially horizontal plane for a considerable distance over the stratum of incoming cold air, thus preheating the latter to some degree.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a heater of the above character from which the heat generated therein is distributed over a considerable surrounding area by deflection as contra-distinguished from reflection or radiation,

, These and other important objects and advantages of the. present invention will appear throughout the course of the following description and accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the heater with the 5 cover in open position,

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 22 of Fig. l with the cover in closed position,

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the heater, and

Fig. 4 is a top plan View of the cover with a movable damper therein.

Referring in; detail to the drawing, A designates generally a pair of spaced metal supports, each having fiat horizontal bottom portions 5, vertically extending ends 6 and fiat horizontally extending and alined top portions '1 formed to provide substantially elongated loopedground engaging runners.

Rigidly mounted upon the tops 1 of the runners by brackets 8, or by welding or other suitable '20 means, is a metal frustro-c'onical heat deflecting shell 9 provided with an internal covering or lining [0, as shown in dotted lines Fig. 2 of asbestos or other suitable heat insulating material. .How- I ever, the lining H1 may be dispensed with, de- 25 pendent upon the gauge or thickness of the metal from which the heat deflecting shell is formed in the event that, radiation of the heat through th shell 9 is also desired. Partly telescoped within the heat deflecting "30 shell 9, and suspended therein by means of brackets H and I 2, in circumferentially spaced relation thereto is a fire pot 13. The upper and lower ends of the fire pot terminate below the up- I per and lower ends of the heat deflecting shell 35 respectively, while the lower end of the fire pot is further spaced relative to the ground or other heater supporting surface. The fire pot is provided adjacent its lower end with a slot or other suitably formed opening [4. ii)

Secured within the lower end of the fire pot in a plane with the bottom wall of the opening i4, is a diammetrically extending bar i5. Also secured within the firebox at a point diammetrically opposite to the opening Mis a supporting bracket 45 I6, having its upper surface alined with the bottom wall of said opening. Movably mounted upon the bar l5 as by means of rivet l7 and supported adjacent its peripheral edge by the bracket I6 is a perforated grate l8 having a part l9 extending through the opening M to provide an operating handle. Slidably mounted within the fire pot l3 and supported upon the grate I8 is a detachable fire plot lining [9.

A conically shaped cover 20 provided with a handle 2! is removably secured to the upper end of the shell 9 by flexible connections 22 or other suitable means. The central portion of the cover is provided with a series of spaced draft openings 23 therethrough. Rotatably secured to the apex of the cover, by means of rivet 24, is a damper or valve member 25 which is also provided with a series of spaced openings 26 corresponding to the openings 23 formed in the cover proper. The valve member 25 is provided with a handle 21 by which same may be readily rotated to move the openings 26 into or out of alinement with the openings 23 whereby to control the amount of direct draft through the firepot when the fire is initially started.

In the operation of. my improved heater, the cover 2% is swung to its open position and packaged fuel of a smokeless character is placed in the firepot l3 and supported by grate I8. The cover is then closed and the valve member 25 rotated until the openings 26 therein aline or register with the openings 23 in the cover 20.

When the fuel is ignited, a direct draft is then created through the firepot l3 and openings 23 and 26 of the cover and valve respectively. After the fire has burned suificiently to generate a considerable amount of heat, the valve 25 is rotated to move the openings 23 and 26 out of register. Subsequently the draft and heat will be caused to follow a path upwardly through the fire pot and thence downwardly and outwardly between the fire pot l3 and deflecting shell 9, thereby distributing the generated heat in a substantially horizontal direction over the cold air flowing into the bottom of the fire pot and over a considerable area surrounding the heater. The ground engaging supports or runners will readily admit of the heater being transported from place to place without disturbing the fire.

It will be apparent that while I have shown and described the heater in preferred form, changes and modifications may be made in the structure disclosed without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a heater of the character described, a pair of independent spaced elements for engaging the ground or other suitable supporting surface, a substantially frustro-conical heat deflecting shell supported by and connecting said elements, a fire pot supported within said shell in circumferentially spaced relation thereto and terminating below said shell and above said sup-porting surface, a cover for said shell, and a valve in said cover.

2. In a heater of the character described, a plurality of supports for engaging the ground or other suitable supporting surface, an open top heat deflecting shell carried by said supports above said supporting surface a fire pot supported within said shell and spaced from the latter and from said supporting surface, a cover for said shell, and a damper carried by said cover.

3. In a heater of the character described, a pair of spaced independent ground engaging looped runners of elongate form, a flared heat deflecting shell secured to and supported by said runners in spaced relation to the ground, and a firepot supported within and circumferentially spaced from said shell, said firepot having its top and bottom edges terminating below the top and bottom of said shell, respectively, and having its bottom edge supported above and spaced from the ground.

4. An orchard heater, including a shell having an open bottom and a closed top, a. fire pot within the shell having an open top and an open bottom, means to connect the pot to the shell to provide free space between the sides of the pot and the sides of the shell, and to also provide free space between the top of the pot and the top of the shell, the bottom portion of the pot projecting downwardly below the bottom of the shell, and means to support the heater with the open bottom of said shell and with the open bottom of the pot spaced above the surface of the ground, whereby heat generated in the pot will flow upwardly and be deflected downwardly by the closed top of the shell through the said space between the sides of the shell and pot, and thence deflected by the lower projecting end of the pot in a downward and outward direction through the open bottom of. the shell.

5. An orchard heater, including a shell having an open bottom and a closed top, a fire pot within the shell having an open top, means to connect the pot to the shell to provide free space between the sides of the pot and the sides of the shell, and to also provide free space between the top of the pot and the top of the shell, and means to support the heater with the bottom of said shell spaced above the surface of the ground, the bottom of the pot being open whereby to freely receive the surrounding air through the space between the bottom thereof and the ground on which the heater is supported, whereby heat generated in the pot will flow upwardly therethrough, and be deflected downwardly by the closed top of the shell through the space between the sides of the shell and pot and will then fiow outwardly from the lower end of the shell and beyond the sides of the shell.

6. In a heater of the character described, a substantially frusto-conical shell for deflecting products of combustion, a fire pot, means supporting said fire pot within said shell in circumferentially spaced relation thereto to provide a downward passage for products of combustion, said fire pot having an open top spaced below the upper edge of said shell and communicating with I said circumferential space and an open lower end terminating below the lower edge of said shell, means for supporting said shell and fire pot relative to the ground or other supporting surface, to provide for the ingress of air into the fire pot and the egress of the products of combustion downwardly through the circumferential space between the shell and fire pot, a cover for the upper end of said shell, and draft control means carried by said cover.

WALTER W. OWENS. 

